Title: The Road Less Traveled
Author: Christy AKA FallenAngel AKA Girlfearless
Disclaimer: Don't own it! Never will!
"Hey, hey, hey." Brenda was grinning from ear to ear as she came running down the stairs and into Jason's arms. She shot a quick look around the room to make sure Michael wasn't around and then looked up at him, "Guess what?"
Jason wrapped his arms around Brenda's waist and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, "What?"
"They're growing."
"What's growing?"
"These," she pointed down at her breasts and continued smiling at him.
"Oh. That's…good?" He was on dangerous ground here and he knew it. Anytime Brenda asked if she was getting bigger he knew the answer was supposed to be no, but pregnant women were supposed to get bigger, that was the point. Wasn't it? And she was smiling.
"What? You don't like them?" She pulled away from him and turned to the side so that she could pull her shirt closer to her body and give him a better look.
"I—I always like your body, you know that."
"Of course, but aren't you supposed to be excited or something? I thought guys liked bigger ones and well you, Jason Morgan, are a breast man."
"I am?" Why didn't he know that?
"Oh yeah," she grinned at him. "Think about it. What's the first thing you go for the minute we start having sex?" She wiggled her eyebrows and pointed down.
Jason shook his head and scrubbed his hands across his face, "You don't know why I do that?"
"Sure I do, because you're a breast man."
"Possibly, but I never…that's something that I do for you."
"What do you mean?" She shook her head and tried to pull away to look up at him, but he pulled her back to him.
"You like that. You're very, uh, sensitive there. I like watching your reaction."
"I'm…? Oh, really?"
"Yeah," he grinned and nuzzled her neck. He had been planning on working on some accounts for the coffee warehouse, but as long as he had his wife in his arms and interested they could wait.
"Wait, wait, wait," she groaned as he kissed his way down her neck and latched on to the pulse point on her throat. "Where's Michael?"
"Who cares," he murmured against her throat and continued on down.
"I do and you do too. We don't want to scar the poor boy for…"
"He's over at Sonny's with Bella. They've got a project or something due next week," he answered as he started to undo the buttons of her shirt. He pushed it off of her shoulders and let it dangle on her arms as he moved his hands back up her torso and rested them on the silk fabric covering the aforementioned breasts. She was right, he grinned as his fingers spread out over the silk, they were getting a little bigger. Interesting.
"You know," she half smiled, half groaned as she looked down at his hands. "They say that sometimes, certain parts of a women's anatomy get even more sensitive when they are pregnant. What do you think about that?"
"Hmmm," he smiled at her and wrapped his arms around her so that he could unhook her bra. "I think we should test that theory."
"Oh, I am so glad we agree."
Brenda saw the door knob turn before she saw the door shoved open, but even with that little bit of warning Jason was still turning around to block her and reach for his gun before she had a chance to react.
"Hey!" Gia stepped back and put her hands up. "What the hell is wrong with you, freak? Do you pull a gun on every guest on comes through the door."
Jason only scowled and set the gun back down, "No. Because everyone else who comes over knocks first."
"I thought that was the guards job and since there wasn't one on the door up here I didn't think it would be a problem. Geez," Gia finally calmed down and looked past Jason at Brenda, whose shirt was still unbuttoned and hanging from her hands. "Damn, you were right, they are getting bigger."
"Wha…" Jason turned around, realized that Brenda did not have her shirt on and then stepped in front of her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Hey. Girl." Gia pointed to own breasts to show him proof of the fact. "I've seen tits before, as a matter of face I've got two of my own. I mean they aren't quite that…substantial, but they are there."
Brenda smiled as she pulled on her shirt and buttoned it. "I told you. They're getting bigger, right? I wonder if they'll stay that way."
"Sure," Gia walked over and slid onto the couch. "Of course they'll also get longer."
"That's," Brenda scrunched up her face, "unappealing."
"Eh, you've got money. You can get them lifted or enhanced or whatever. Don't worry about it."
Jason merely shook his head as he stared between the two of them. He really had no clue what they were talking about and from the sound of it he really didn't want to. "Uh, I think I'm gonna go…Michael and Bella are working on a project for school, Sonny might need help."
Gia only smiled triumphantly as Brenda gave Jason a kiss and he left.
"Okay," Brenda walked over to the chair and sat down. "What is wrong with you? I was about to have sex with my husband. And with Emily and the baby and all the other crap going on around here I am ashamed to say that, well, it's been a little while."
"Oh God," Gia threw up her arms and scowled at her friend. "One week is not a little while you nympho, on month is a while, two months is a while, one week is normal. And anyway I have serious problems."
"And if I don't get to have sex with my husband soon then so will I. But since you've already ruined the mood, what's wrong?"
"Lucky found out."
"Lucky found out what?"
"That I thought I was pregnant."
"So?"
"So now he's acting all weird and stuff. He took me out to a romantic dinner last night and then tried the whole seduction thing when we got home…he said we should, maybe, date exclusively. No more cheating."
"Gia," Brenda rolled her eyes at her friend. "You two have been dating exclusively for months now, probably a year. When was the last time you took a male model home or a designer or anyone other than Lucky? And so what, he took you out to dinner. Guys do that."
"Not Lucky. Lucky takes me to the Jakes or to the Haunted Star, he does not take me out to a sit-down restaurant and order wine—that actually went with the dinner!—and things like that. He just doesn't. It's not his thing. He doesn't try to seduce. The first time we had sex you wanna know what his idea of a seduction was?"
"Probably not."
"He asked if I wanted to put the condom on him or if I wanted him to do it himself."
"That's…Why the hell have you been with him for this long?"
"Because he's…Lucky. He's cute and sweet and dangerous and perfect, he's everything I'm not. He still believes in happily ever after, I bet he even thinks unicorns are real. I mean think about all he's been through with his parents, being kidnapped, losing his best friend, finding out he had a brother, being on the run for most of his childhood and he still believes that we'll end up together. He's like one of those women at the Miss America pageants that want world peace."
"So…"
"So he's also incredibly screwed up. He's pissed as his father for marrying Skye, even though he likes her; he still hasn't completely gotten over being kidnapped and Helena screwing with his head; his ex-girlfriend/soul mate just showed up in town. All that stuff screams mid-life crisis or something. Why does he want this now?"
Brenda shook her head and moved over to the couch so she could sit next to Gia. "Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, his father finally committing to someone other this his mother and his ex coming back to town have forced him to deal with the fact that he's not a kid anymore and he needs to move on with his life?"
"No."
"Jesus Christ Gia! What do you want from him?"
"I don't—" She leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes as a tear rolled down her face.
"Oh, Oh, Oh," Brenda leaned across the couch and wrapped her arms around her best friend. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I'm just emotional and hormonal and God…"
"No," Gia cried into her shoulder, "that's not it. I just—What if I'm not cut out to be a good girlfriend? I saw Marcus the other day and he told me that the reason I am with Lucky is that I know he'll never really commit or be a good boyfriend and so I can leave him at anytime and not feel bad about it. Do you think that's true?"
"No." She really wanted to kill Marcus Taggart. What kind of asshole said something like that to their little sister? "It's not true, sweetheart. It's not. You're with Lucky because you love him and because he makes you feel free and confident and happy and, as much as you love your big brother, Taggart hates that. He hates that it's Lucky that makes you happy. And, as a brother, he will always want better for you."
"But what's better than Lucky?"
Brenda wanted to laugh out loud. This girl who couldn't imagine someone better than her boyfriend out there in the world didn't know if they'd make it or not. What more proof did she need? "To your brother? I'm sure a doctor or a lawyer or a cop, definitely not a mobster. I know it's hard, but they aren't ever gonna get along. You know that."
"I know and it's not fair."
"Yeah well," she gave Gia a smacking kiss on the cheek and moved back to her seat on the couch, "life isn't fair. So your brother and your boyfriend hate each other, but they love you and for that reason alone they will do their best not to kill each other. At least there is that."
"I guess. So you really think that Lucky loves me?"
"Yes."
"And I love him?"
"Yes." She laughed. Only Gia Campbell would have to ask if she was in love with someone.
"What if he, like, asks me to marry him or something? What should I say?"
"You think he's gonna ask you to marry him?"
"How the hell do I know? I'm just trying to be prepared in case he does. Geez."
Brenda shook her head and laughed, "Say the first thing that comes to your mind."
"Oh God, Bren, how often does the first thing that comes to my mind make sense?"
"Rarely, but Lucky knows that."
"Yeah," she thought about it and nodded. "Yeah, I guess he does. Geez, what the hell is wrong with us? You with Jason, me with Lucky…and then there's Sonny and Emily. Well at least we aren't as screwed up as them."
"I don't know. They seem to actually be talking things out, you know, like normal people."
"Shocking. So how's domestic bliss?"
"Blissful."
"Who would have thought, Brenda Barrett and Jason Morgan the American Dream?"
"Not me, but it works for us."
"So how's my little niece or nephew?"
"Good, growing. Roomless."
"Roomless? What does that mean? Isn't it, like, cooking in there," she pointed at Brenda's stomach.
"Yes it's…cooking in here. But when it gets out it's gonna be sleeping in the bathtub."
"Why would…" Gia thought about it and, much as Emily had, counted up the rooms in the penthouse and laughed. "You don't have enough rooms for the kid!"
"Thank you professor."
"Are you gonna move?"
"I don't know. I haven't brought it up to him; I figured he'd want to stay here."
"Why? You won't have anywhere to put your kid. That's weird."
"Yeah, but he's always lived here."
"Well I don't know what someone else would say, but I figure if you have sex with your wife without protection and take the risk of knocking her up then you should be ready to move into a bigger place so the kid doesn't have to sleep on the pool table. Maybe that's just me."
"We weren't trying to get pregnant and neither of us thought about the rooms."
"Oh God," Gia rolled her eyes. "You know what you just said to me about Lucky and him loving me and just saying what comes to my mind? Follow that advice and talk to your husband about moving into a place where your kids don't have to sleep in the sink. Freak."
"Bitch."
"Oh please, I don't even pretend that's an insult anymore."
"Keep it up and I'll start calling you Lizzie…"
"Oh," Gia groaned. "Now that is just mean."
"Mr. Cassadine," Mrs. Lansbury stepped into Nikolas' study and smiled softly at him, "Mr. Spencer here to see you."
"Thanks Mrs. L." Lucky shot the older woman a smile and wink as she blushed and left the two brothers alone. "God she's cute."
Nikolas only shook his head, if there was one thing that Lucky and Luke Spencer had in common it was their need to flirt with every woman they came in contact with. "One of these days she's going to get you alone and take advantage."
"Hey, every young man needs an older woman to show them the ways of the world. You had Katherine, I had Mrs. Lansbury, but soon she's going to have to find another young man to school. I'm going off the market."
"Are you?" Nikolas was suddenly interested. He'd been expecting this since then year before when his brother called him pissed off because he'd found out that Gia had been sleeping with a photographer. Nikolas pointed out at that time that Lucky had also been sleeping with a host at Luke's, but that didn't seem to matter. Apparently at some point after that each of them had broken off their outside relationships and committed to each other—or at least stopped having sex with other people.
"Yep. I took my girl out to a quiet dinner for two last night, next week I'm surprising her with a trip to New York and after everything with Em and dad's wedding to Skye has calmed down I'm gonna ask to her marry me."
Nikolas smiled and stepped around his desk to give Lucky a hug, "Congratulations little brother."
Lucky hugged Nikolas back and laughed. "Can you believe it?"
"Actually, yes."
"You know when we first met her, after Em disappeared, I thought that you and Gia would get together."
"That is…fascinating."
Lucky only laughed as his brother scrunched up his face. "Guess not. Well, aren't you going to offer me some liquor big brother? We are celebrating here."
"Of course," Nikolas walked over to the liquor cabinet, took out two glasses and a bottle of bourbon and poured each of them a drink. "To Gia, for putting up with you for this long."
"To Gia." Lucky knocked back the drink and sat down on the couch. "Actually there's more. I need your help."
"Sure. What do you need?"
Lucky reached into his pocket and pulled out three small boxes, "I don't know which one to give her."
"Why aren't you talking to Brenda or Emily about this?"
"Brenda can't keep a secret and Emily…didn't Alexis tell you?"
"No. Is something wrong? Is she back in the hospital?"
"No, she's in Venezuela."
"Venez…with Alcazar."
"How do you…Jesus, right, I forgot your cousin is his—what?—niece."
"Yes."
"So how much do you know at this point?"
"Well," Nikolas leaned back into the couch. "Enough. I know that Luis Alcazar was Samantha's father. I know that the Alcazars, Emily's mother, Stefan, and Alexis were all close friends. I know that Emily's father is Lorenzo Alcazar and I know that her mother was Andrejs Nikolai's step sister."
"So…a lot. This is weird, huh? All this time we've been friends and we didn't know that Em's mom knew your family."
"I've made an effort not to be upset with Alexis and Stefan for not telling me…"
"And?"
"And so far I've failed. From what I understand Alexis didn't know that Emily was this woman's daughter, but my uncle did have some contact with her and knew there was a child and he won't say it, but I believe he knew that Emily was related to her."
"So why didn't he say anything?"
"With my family? Who knows? I assume that he figured it would never come up, Emily didn't know him and Alexis didn't realize who she was, why would he expect that something like this would happen?"
"Because it always does." Lucky grinned as Nikolas nodded. "Hey, what about Luis Alcazar?"
"What about him?"
"Why didn't Stefan or Alexis say anything about all of this then?"
"Again, who knows? Apparently they didn't even speak to each other about it until after he was killed and then it was only to be sure that they didn't need to cover for each other."
"Well, I guess it's good to know that if you ever need someone to cover up a murder for you, you've got an aunt and uncle who will help."
"Yeah, but if I need someone to tell me the truth about something I certainly can't go to either of them."
"Hey man," Lucky scrubbed his hands down his face and sunk further into the couch, "I know how you feel. Believe me, I do, but don't start turning everything they've said to you into a lie…especially not Natasha. You know I would mind too much if you decided to cut Stefan off though."
"Thanks," Nikolas laughed. "I can always count on you to be helpful."
"Yeah, well, that's what I'm here for. Anyway, are you gonna look at these rings or not?"
"Not."
"Wha—Come on. Are you serious? I thought you were happy for me."
"I am, and that's why I'm going to tell you to get a woman's opinion on this. Trust me. Ask Skye, ask Brenda and tell her she has to keep her mouth shut, I can call Mrs. Lansbury back in if you want me to and you can ask her, but don't even think about showing me that ring before you give it to Gia."
"Why?"
"Because she'll find out and be pissed about it."
Lucky scratched his head and nodded. He wasn't sure why Gia would be pissed if Nikolas picked out her engagement ring, but he figured he might as well take his brother's advice; while neither of them were exactly experts on how a relationship worked, Lucky was willing to admit that Nikolas was probably a little better at anticipating a woman's needs and wants than he was. "Alright. So…have you talked to Liz?"
"Have you?"
"I asked you first."
Nikolas laughed and shook his head. Little brothers. "No."
"Did you hear she's engaged?"
"To Ric Lansing. I heard. Always nice when your lawyer marries you ex-wife."
"Well at least your brother didn't marry your best girl."
"Still not over that, huh?"
"Dude," Lucky groaned and shook his head. This had been a half-joke, half-truth that they'd carefully talked around since the engagement announcement. "You married the first girl I ever loved."
"Like hell I did."
"Oh, well who did you marry then?"
"The second girl you ever loved."
"Then who was the first."
The two of them looked at each other and said, simultaneously, "Emily."
Nikolas laughed again and asked, "Does Gia know about you and Emily?"
"What me and Emily? There is no me and Emily." Lucky grinned as his brother stared at him, unconvinced. "Yeah, she knows. She says I'm lucky that Emily is with Sonny otherwise she might have to keep me away from my best friend. I keep telling her there wouldn't be anything to worry about, but you know Gia. She's…"
"Gia."
"Yeah."
"How does that work anyway? Emily and Sonny?"
"Beats the hell outta me, but it works. I guess."
"You guess?"
Lucky smiled and cocked his head to stare at his brother, "Are you thinking about getting with Emily?"
"Getting with? I don't even know what that means."
"Yes you do. Don't play prince with me."
"No. I am not thinking of getting with Emily and even if I was, I don't believe she thinks of me that way."
"But," Lucky raised his eyebrows, "you think of her that way?"
"No." Nikolas thought about it for a second and then nodded his head. "Not at all."
"Good." Lucky shook his head and smiled over at his brother. He didn't even want to know what would have happened and Nikolas had ever actually considered getting together with Emily, especially now that she was with Sonny. He knew of Emily's crush on his brother, when she was younger, and while he didn't believe there were any lingering feelings, things could have become more than a little dangerous if she decided, even for a little while, that there were. "So what are the almighty Cassadines going to do about Sam McCall?"
Nikolas shook his head and suddenly became very interested in the bottom of his glass.
"Nikolas?" Still no answer. Uh-oh. "You guys aren't gonna, like, get rid of her or something are you?"
"What? Get rid of her? No. Where do you get this stuff?"
"Well you are a Cassadine."
"Right, which means I should be trying to get rid of you, not Samantha."
"I was just saying…"
"Uncle wants to make an announcement to bring her into the family, Alexis is fighting him about that."
"Why?"
"Helena."
"Oh. Good reason. Does she think the old bat will try to kill her or something?"
"It's not completely out of the question, but no, not exactly. She knows that my grandmother wouldn't risk alienating me by killing Alexis' daughter, but she also knows that killing someone isn't the only way to make them suffer. Samantha has…colorful, to say the least, past and Alexis is worried that if Helena got a hold of any of that information then she could make problems."
Lucky nodded, "So do you know about her sister?"
"That she was murdered? Yes."
"That she was murdered by Nikolai's second in command. Didn't he used to have some sort of connection to the Cassadines or something?"
"That's what my uncle says." Nikolas answered vaguely.
"And you two aren't thinking about checking to see if Simon killing Sam's sister had something to do with Helena, are you?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Come on Nikky! You know why I'm asking. We're at war with Nikolai right now."
"Oh really, that's interesting, and there aren't bodies falling from the sky. Your boss must be working on self control right now."
"Kiss ass, Nikolas. You and I both know that this isn't just about business, it's about Em too. We need this guy alive."
"Why?"
"What do you mean, why? It's not obvious?"
Nikolas smiled to himself and shook his head, "It's obvious that there is some connection, but what, exactly, that connection is, isn't obvious. I'm going to need to you explain it to me."
Lucky groaned as he realized what Nikolas was getting at. The Cassadine, with the exception of Alexis, knew that there was something going on with Andrejs Nikolai and that it had something to do with Emily's mother, but that didn't know how, exactly, Emily became involved. "Fine. Let me make a call."
"No," Nikolas stood up and blocked his brother's path. "If you call Jason or Sonny they may say no or talk you out of telling me because their worried about what I'll do, but you know me Lucky. You, me, Emily, Liz. We practically taught each other the value of family and loyalty, don't try to tell me that what's going on with my best friend doesn't involved me."
"Fat lot of good that did us," Lucky grunted under his breath and leaned back into his seat. "Fine, but you get the short version. Okay?"
"Okay." Nikolas nodded and sat back down.
"Alright, here's what happened: You remember when Emily disappeared," Lucky continued on, not waiting for an answer, "well she didn't lose her memory like we've been telling everyone. She was, essentially, recruited by the FBI because they noticed that Sorel was watching her. They found out that his buttons were being pushed by Nikolai and so they started to look into Em's history and somehow, we still don't know how, they found out who her mother and father were. So that night they brought her in, told her they knew who her biological father was, and that if she wanted to know she had to work with them to take Nikolai down. And that's what she did until they realized he was making his way back to Port Charles, so they brought her back here and that's where we are now."
"How was she helping them? I mean this is Em we're talking about."
"Yeah," Lucky smiled and shook his head. "This is Em we're talking about. Have you ever known her to back away from a challenge?" Nikolas shook his head. "Yeah, me either. They trained her and turned her into this, like, super kick-ass assassin type chick. It's crazy."
"Emily…? Our Emily? A super kick-ass assassin type chick?" Nikolas cocked his head to the side as he realized how ridiculous those words sounded coming out of his mouth.
"Yup."
"Do you know why Nikolai was searching for her to begin with?"
"Nope, but we figure it either had something to do with his obsession with her mother or he wants to rebuild his step daddy's empire and he can't do it without her. You know, a family member related by blood. That sort of thing."
"Blood tells."
"Huh?"
"Nothing," Nikolas shook his head. "Just something my grandmother used to drill into me. Blood tells. It's an aristocracy thing."
"Oh. Well it's one of those things, anyway."
"Okay, how have they managed to make this work? They trained her, they've brought her back her as a mobster, what happened in between?"
"The way she tells it they built up her reputation as Corey Wilson—"
"Corey Wilson?" Nikolas shook his head and shot up from his chair. "I'd always assumed that Corey Wilson was a man."
"Whoa, huh? You've heard the name?"
"Of course I've heard the name. Half of the illegitimate business world has heard the name. She's done work for the Organizatsiya a few times."
"That's…that's Russian mob right?"
"Yes, that's Russian mob. I've heard that Vyacheslav Ivankov* contacted her personally to kill someone."
"No shit. You think it's true?"
"I don't know, but I plan on finding out."
Both men settled back into their seats and thought about the implications of what they'd told each other. Not only was Emily more lethal than either of them had imagined, but she was also much more connected, or at least much better known, than they'd expected. Whether Vyacheslav Ivankov had really contacted her to kill someone or not didn't matter, enough people believed it that the information had actually made its way to Nikolas Cassadine.
Emily stepped out of the Alcazar jet and looked around for a minute, trying to get her bearings. She inspected the ground and then finally looked up, confused, at her surroundings. "I thought we were going to Caracas."
"Ah," Lorenzo smiled and took her hand so that she could safely walk down the stairs. "Yes, a lot of people make that assumption, though most of them don't realize that it is not the case until much later…"
"Oh, uh, I've been to Caracas a few times on business with…with a friend. It doesn't look like this, exactly."
"No, it doesn't. This is the airport in Maracaibo, the capitol city of Zulia."
"Oh…" She trailed off and looked around a second before saying, "So your family lives in Maracaibo?"
Lorenzo smiled again and shook his head, "Not exactly. We'll have about a forty-five minute ride to the family compound."
"Compound?"
"Yes."
"Well…Oh, again, I guess. I should probably stop making assumptions."
"No, it's quite alright. Do you know much about this area?"
"Um, very little. I know Maracaibo is the second largest city in Venezuela, after Caracas and that Zulia borders Colombia, which I guess, makes sense considering…" Again, she trailed off and shot him an apologetic look.
"Considering the family business. Yes, you're right, the connections we have with Colombia have been very useful in the past, though less so lately. What else?"
"I don't know. The country makes money off of oil and some of it comes from around here and I think, I guess. Not much else."
"That's quite a bit more than most people know."
"Like I said, I've been too Caracas and a few other places in Venezuela. I like to know a little bit of information about the places I'm traveling to…you never know when some innocuous behavior is going to be considered insulting."
"No." He nodded. "You never do."
"Why do I get the feeling your testing me?"
"I don't know. I'm not. I am, however, intrigued by your knowledge."
"And so instead of telling me the things I need to know you're waiting to see if I can guess them?"
"Yes."
"Yeah," she shook her head and laughed. "That's testing."
"Does it bother you?"
"No. I generally just like to have a little more warning when I need to be on point, that's all."
"Of course, I'm sorry."
"No," she shook her head again and wanted to kick herself. They'd almost developed an understanding of each other on the plane ride and here she was screwing it up already. "Listen, uh, if you get to know me well enough then you will realize that I have a tendency to speak before I think. It's just one of those things—You know?—that crazy people do."
"Yes, I think I do." Lorenzo thought of his brother and how often their father had to censor Luis' comments in front of outsiders. "We'll make the drive to the house and," he looked down at his watch, "it's still early so I'm sure my father, at least, will be there to greet us."
"Oh."
"Is that a problem?"
"No," she smiled unconvincingly. "No. It's just—I thought I might get to settle in before we did the whole meet the family thing. That's all."
"Would you like me to call ahead and tell him not to be waiting?"
"No, of course not. It's his house, he can wait if he wants to. It's just…he's not gonna be expecting me to call him grandpa or anything. Is he?"
"No," Lorenzo shook his head and tried to imagine his father's reaction to Emily calling him grandpa. The only emotions he could clearly imagine were displeasure and delight.
"Okay, well then I guess it's alright."
"Good." Lorenzo nodded and opened up the limo door so that she could step in.
They rode in silence for a nearly fifteen minutes, until finally she couldn't take it anymore and said, "So…you ever met Chavez."
"Yes," he answered, completely serious. "A few times."
"Oh," she gave one quick nod of her head. Of course he'd met the president of his country, she thought sardonically, hadn't everyone?
"You think that's odd?"
"No, well, yes. Don't you? I mean I know he's…different from the U.S. president and all, but that's still a little weird. You guys aren't, like, on a first name basis or anything? You don't call him up and ask him for salad recipes, do you?"
"Salad recipes?"
"Oh, drop the confused foreigner act. You know what I meant."
"I believe you are the foreigner here," he smiled and tapped her knee, "but yes, I know what you meant. And no, I do not."
"So is he good for business?"
"He can be. He can be bad for business too. As with most things it depends on…" he trailed off waiving his hand in the air, "how the winds blow."
"Or how the pipelines flow." She retorted, thinking of Venezuela's oil reserves.
"That too." He smiled, impressed at the ease with which she talked to him and the intelligence of her conversation. He hadn't expected her to be dumb, no daughter of Sophie's would be; however she'd also been raised by the Quartermaines and they seemed to be a uniquely self-absorbed group of people. It wouldn't have been hard for them to raise a young woman who thought only of herself and who could only comment on issues relating directly to her.
"What are you thinking?"
"That I'm very surprised and impressed with your astuteness."
"Well…that's…I'm not sure if I should be flattered or irritated."
"Flattered, I did not mean to irritate you."
"Doesn't usually make a difference with me."
"It does with me."
"Fine," she cocked her head to the side and smiled, "I'll be flattered."
"Good, so…" He trailed off as the limo came to a slow stop.
"Are we there already?"
"No," Lorenzo leaned forward and knocked three times on the window separating them from the driver. He received two in return. Trouble. "Put your head down."
"Wha…" Later she wouldn't be oddly embarrassed by the fact that she screamed as the widow next to her shattered. She managed to shove her body over to the other side of the back seat so that no glass hit her, but it still took her a few seconds after that to realize what was happening, and that it wasn't a brick or rock that shattered the window, but rather a bullet. She whipped her head up to stare at the man across from her and said, "Do you have a gun?"
"Yes."
"Good," she turned and shoved open the door next to her with her good arm. "Stay here." Before he could respond she was out of the limo and slamming the door closed behind her, leaning against it. She carefully took the brace off of her arm and set it on the ground next to her before reaching behind her, again with the good arm, and taking her gun out of the waist band of her pants. She couldn't hear anymore gunshots and she wasn't sure if she should be comforted or concerned about that. The sound of the graveled ground shifting to her left had her swerving around to the rear of the car and aiming at about the place she'd expected the head of someone peaking around the corner to be.
"What are you doing?"
Emily looked up and saw the driver standing, out in the open, in front of her. "Resting…what the hell does it look like! Why are you standing? Get down here." She reached up to pull him down and he swatted her hands away.
"Does not matter."
"Does not matter." She shook her head, confused. "What does not matter?"
"Does not matter if you sit or stand. They shoot from above. Marco looks for them."
"Marco looks for them…" She assumed that Marco was the other man who'd been sitting in the front of the car and that the driver was telling her that the other man had gone off to find the shooters. "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting. Watching."
"Watching for what?" She stood up carefully and looked around. They looked to be in valley of some sort with hills rising above them on both sides and more tree coverage than she cared to think about.
"Kidnappers."
"Kidnappers?"
"Yes. Why do you repeat?"
"Why do I…" she trailed off and shook her head. "I'm just trying to grasp the situation."
The driver, she vaguely remembered his name being Vincent or something like that, reached out and took her hands in his. "Grasp?" He turned each of her hands over in his and shook his head. "Why?"
"No I meant…" She was going to say she was trying to wrap her head around the situation, but she figured that would be worse than grasp. "I'm just trying to understand what is happening."
"Oh. They see the expensive car and think it may be someone important so they tried to take…it is normal. Nothing to worry." He light brown eyes shined out at her curiously and she thought, for a second, that he looked more like a little boy than a man employed by the mob. There was a touch of salt and pepper at his temples and the crows feet in the corners of his eyes winked out at her. He looked, to her, like some South American grandfather who kept mints in his pockets and not a nine millimeter.
"Great." She nodded and leaned back against the door. "Why isn't there anything to worry about?"
"No more shooting. Marco will be back soon, they grasp," he smiled as he said the word, "the situation."
"The situation?"
"Mr. Alcazar."
"Oh."
"So who are they? The shooters."
"Rebels. Soldiers. Police." He shrugged.
"Great. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Wonderful."
"Fire?"
"It's dangerous here."
"Yes," he nodded, agreeing.
"No." Emily whipped around and stared at the man walked down the hill behind them. She remembered seeing after the flight to Venezuela, but at some point between staring at the landscape and talking with her father she'd lost track of him. "The compound is perfectly safe."
"Yeah," she nodded, unconvinced. Grateful, and somewhat guilty for feeling that way, that she wouldn't have to deal with anymore broken English she turned to talk to the younger man.
"They didn't know who they were shooting at," he bent down in front of her and picked her brace up off the ground. "It's a new car. It won't be happening again and you will not be traveling in a car that the people don't recognize again. It should not have happened this time."
"Thanks," she took the brace and slid her arm back into it. "So what happens now?"
"We leave. They won't be coming back for a while." The younger man with murky black eyes gestured toward the driver and the older man slid back into the car.
"So how longer have you worked for the Alcazar's?"
"A while," he reached around her and opened the door. "Get in."
"Right," she let the word drawl out as she climbed into the backseat of the limo and was met with her father comfortably relaxing. "I suppose you expected this."
"It happens."
"Right. It happens. Thanks for the warning."
"I was not expecting any problems tonight. It's not late enough for people to be traveling back from the city and it's too late for them to be traveling to the city. Cars aren't usually accosted at this time of night. It will not happen again."
"Yeah, that's was the very personable body guard said."
"Ah," he nodded as if he completely understood her sarcasm. "You've met Marco, Vincent's grandson."
"Grandson? How did that sweet guy father someone who fathered that…not sweet guy?"
"Marco is a very serious you man, but he is also very good at his job. He will be your guard while you're here."
"Wonderful. Anything else you forgot to mention?"
"Not that I can remember, but things have a tendency to come up so we'll deal with it all as it happens."
She narrowed her eyes and shot him her best aggravated look. "You know you're kind of an ass?"
"I do, yes."
She laughed as the car pitched forward and they were on their way again, "Just what I need. Jason Morgan version two point oh."
He only grinned as she turned away from him and dropped her head onto the seat behind her.
* FYI: Vyacheslav Ivankov is a real person. He was extradited to Russia 2004 on murder charges and was found not guilty. He is supposedly America's most powerful vor v zakone or theif-in-law. And he's got some pretty powerful connections within the Russian government. He won't really be a character in my story, but I thought it would be interesting to add a little 'truth' to my fanfic. LOL.